"President
Buhari died today in London at about 4:30 p.m. (1530 GMT), following a
prolonged illness," President Bola Tinubu's spokesperson said in a
statement.
The
spokesperson said Tinubu had directed Vice President Kashim Shettima and his
chief of staff to travel to London to collect and accompany Buhari's body back
to Nigeria for burial.
A Muslim,
Buhari was expected to be buried according to Muslim rites in his home state of
northwestern Katsina, government officials said.
Buhari, 82,
first led the country as a military ruler after a coup in the 1980s. He earned
a devoted following for his brand of anti-corruption conviction politics.
He referred to
himself as a "converted democrat" and swapped his military uniform
for kaftans and prayer caps.
"I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody," was a constant refrain Buhari told supporters and critics alike.
Buhari defeated
Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 in what was judged to be Nigeria's fairest election
to date. Many hoped the retired major general would crack down on armed groups,
just as he had as the country's military head of state.
Instead,
violence that had mostly been confined to the northeast spread. That left
swathes of Nigeria outside the control of its security forces as gunmen in the
northwest, armed separatists and gangs in the southeast roamed unchecked.
Much of his
appeal lay in the anti-corruption ethos that was a central plank of his agenda
both as a military and civilian ruler. He said endemic corruption in Nigeria's
political culture was holding people back.
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